


nothing's fine i'm torn

by scheherazades



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: F/M, i'm not convinced, posting for marti, tell me you love me - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 04:31:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2335406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scheherazades/pseuds/scheherazades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a trip to a chinese gift shop ends in more than gifts</p>
            </blockquote>





	nothing's fine i'm torn

**Author's Note:**

> posting at the request of marti bc she's pretty convincing and she needs cheering up so i promised i'd post this for her. not great for cheering up, though. sorry. i liked writing this until the end scene when i just got inside my own head and convinced myself i'm awful. i've been doing that a lot lately. anyhow, shower me with love bc i'm not entirely sure i should even post this. 
> 
> (you don't actually have to do that but it would be nice)
> 
> based on this prompt: 
> 
> Imagine your OTP in a gift shop or something of the like, possibly before they become a couple. Person A spots a mood ring, and just for giggles, they slip it on their finger. It changes to the colour indicating “in love”. Person B begins to question or tease them about it, but A brushes it off, replying that it’s just a toy and doesn’t mean anything. What happens next is up to you.

“Gift shops are the work of the devil.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic, Scotty! They’re fun! C’mon help me pick a key ring for my collection.”

 _Why am I even here?_ Scott thinks to himself. He realises not even seconds later that it’s because he loves Tessa, would do anything for Tessa; wants to make Tessa happy. Tessa, Tessa, Tessa. It’s all her. It’s always been, and always will be her.

Every country they visited, every competition they entered, she needed a memento of it. He thinks it’s adorable that she’s so set in these habits of hers. He remembers the first international competition they entered when they were tiny kids, in Austria, and how she insisted they went to this gift shop (with their moms, of course) she’d discovered on their day off. So after competition was over, and score sheets were collected (she had a thing about those, too), the two of them and their mothers set out in search of this gift shop and Scott couldn’t help but grin at the smile lighting up his partners face.

She found the gift she wanted, just a cheap and small key ring reminding her of their visit and felt a great sense of pride in paying for it herself. He noticed her eyeing a slightly more expensive snow globe of the city scape on the way out, and persistently pulled on his mother’s sleeve when Tessa wasn’t watching, begging her to give him the extra money he needed. She had questioned why he wanted it, and he simply replied ‘I wanna get Tessa a present’. And thus, the tradition was born.

Tessa was overwhelmed by his gesture, and threw her tiny arms around him, thanking him profoundly ( _I’m glad you still like me even though we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend anymore,_ she’d said, and he’d only smiled and assured her he could never dislike her).

Ever since then, for every international competition they entered, for every international tour they did, she’d buy her key ring and he’d buy her the snow globe she secretly had her eye on. It became a part of the Virtue/Moir tradition, and Tessa’s superstitious nature ensured they never left the country they competed or toured in without fitting it in somewhere in their busy schedules.

He followed her around the shop aimlessly, and stopped when she stopped by a display of mood rings. He’d always thought those things were ridiculous. He insisted they just changed colour every so often and meant nothing about how you really felt, how could a piece of plastic know how you felt?

Tessa wasn’t so logical about it, though.

                “God, I haven’t worn one of these in years.” She laughed as she picked one up and examined it. “Do you remember that year I was like, obsessed with them?”

                “Oh yeah.” Of course he remembers, he’d never forget.

Tessa came into practice one summer wearing the ring, and Scott immediately rolled his eyes and questioned what it was. Teenage attitude had started to get to him, and he sometimes thought some things 11 year old Tessa did were ridiculous, but he tried not to let it show. He’d never say it to her, anyway, he liked her excitement over little things.

She’d explained what it was, and he told her she could wear it if she really wanted, but she should know she wasted her money on it, because there’s no way it really worked.

                “Here.” She held out the ring to him, and he cocked his head as he looked at her, wondering what she was giving it to him for.

                “If this is your way of proposing to me, Tessa, you’ll need to be more creative than that.”

                “Don’t be ridiculous. Just try it on. Please, Scott. I know these things work!”

He couldn’t resist when she got all puppy dog, glass eyed and pouty on him.

She knew it, damn her.

                “Fine, hand it over.” He sighed as she gave him the ring, and he put it on his finger, noting as the colour changed to a deep red colour. “What is that supposed to mean?”

                “Let me check.” She picked up one of the leaflets supplied with it, examining what the colour of the ring meant. “Says here that…ooh, you’re in love. Who are you thinking about?”

                “No one. I told you, these things are ridiculous. It’s just a toy. Kids believe in that stuff Tess, not me. You know that.” He rolled his eyes, and tried to ignore the revealing heat rising through his neck and into his cheeks.

                “So why are you going red and being so defensive?”

                “I’m not being defensive!”

                “You so are!” She laughs loudly, the laugh she only reserves for him. “C’mon Scott, we tell each other everything. You can tell me who the lucky lady is.”

                “It’s nothing. Nobody. Don’t worry.” He starts pulling at the offending object, trying to get it off his finger to put it back into the box.

                “Aw come on, don’t be boring. Tell me!” She begs, and he wants to get out of there as fast as he can.

                “Drop it, Tessa. Are we done here?” He puts the ring back into the box full of them, and stalks off in the direction of the exit, leaving a stunned and speechless partner in his wake.

***

He goes to her later that same day, after he’s wandered around the streets of China for a bit, pounded out his frustrations alone, away from the cause of them. God, he loved her. Of course he did, he’s loved her every day for the last 17 years. But something had changed, they had changed, he had changed.

With a girlfriend no longer in the picture, it became clear to him.

It was always, will always be Tessa.

There’s a reason he abides by her superstitions when they compete or perform, a reason he put the safety pin in his shirt in Sochi, a reason he always buys her those god damn snow globes that just sit on her shelves.

She is taken aback when she opens the door to him, but allows him inside and sits herself as close to him as ever, no sign of any tension between them. He lets them sit in silence for a minute or two, before he hands her the tightly wrapped snow globe he’d bought when he was out alone earlier.

                “It’s beautiful, Scott. Thank you.” When she reaches up to kiss his cheek, goes to grab his hand and intertwine their fingers, he stands up and paces her hotel room.

                “Here’s the thing, Tessa.” He begins, reaching one of the room, looking her briefly in the eyes, admiring her long and dark hair, all curly and loose around her shoulders, before he looks back at the floor and paces to the other side of the room. “I still think mood rings are ridiculous and don’t actually work, but maybe this one was just influential. I don’t know. Whatever. Thing is, I love you. Like, I really _love_ you. And I couldn’t pretend anymore. Even if I just figured it out. Whatever. I love you, I love you, I love you. And I probably always will, so. Do with that what you will.”

He finally takes a breath and she beckons him to sit back down next to her, so he does. Almost immediately, he is taken by surprise when he plants his lips firmly on hers, and it takes a second before he realises this is happening, this is real. It all sounds like an Ed Sheeran song, or a Taylor Swift song, or just one of those clichés Tessa is obsessed with. He doesn’t care.

So long as he can kiss her forever, he doesn’t care what clichés he lives up to.  

                “Wow, um, that was…unexpected. So you want to be an ‘us’, huh?” She asks, and he wants to die of shame at how ridiculous this all sounds. His brothers would surely tell him to stop being such a coward if they could see him now.

                “I want to be whatever we feel like we are. I want to be with you, in any way I can, cheesy as that sounds. If that means I’m your boyfriend, then I’m your boyfriend. Say the word, Tessa, say it and I’m yours. I swear. I promise. Whatever you need.”

God, he’s desperate.

                “It’s more complicated than that. What if we don’t see each other so much anymore? What if we see each other too much? What if we don’t retire and this gets out?”

                “The answer to all your questions is we deal with whatever happens as it comes. We don’t plan, we just let things happen. Are you up for that, at least? I’d go crazy without you, though, so keep that in mind.” Why he is joking when he means to be serious he has no idea, but it doesn’t matter.

                “I can’t do this whole on-and-off thing anymore, Scott. It’s exhausting, frankly. You can’t just want me when it’s convenient and there’s no one else around.”

                “Tessa…” He sighs. “That’s not it. I know I fucked up, I know I’ve been unfairly stringing you along for years but this is what I want. You are what I want. All I want. Why are you so scared to give us a chance?”

                “I wouldn’t live through heartbreak caused by you. I just wouldn’t.”

                “I can’t promise I’d never break your heart, Tess, but I can promise to try my hardest not to, and I can certainly promise it wouldn’t be intentional. Please, just give us a try.” He fixes a strand of her hair, as he always does, and looks into her glassy, tear filled eyes.

                “We can’t. _I_ can’t. I just…not right now, at least. I’m sorry, Scott. Scott, wait.” She tries to call after him as he gets up, ready to tear from the room at her rejection.

                “I don’t know what it is you’re so afraid of, Tessa, I’m putting my heart on the line here. I’m promising you forever, if you want it, and you’re worried I’m going to break your heart? It would kill me to know I hurt you. I could never. I thought you’d realise that by now.”

So with that said, he leaves. He leaves her alone with her thoughts and her snow globe, the reminder of a long standing partnership that just fell apart at the seams.


End file.
